New Approaches for the Textile and Leather Sectors

Turkey's textile and leather sectors hold an important place in the country's economic development process through their production scale, employment creation, value added in the production process, and export potential.

The textile and leather sectors are interrelated sectors characterized as manufacturing branches where products reach consumers through the concept of fashion and are more labor-intensive (Anonymous, 2015). The similarity between the textile and leather sectors is the high consumption of water and chemicals in wet processing, resulting in large quantities of wastewater and pollution load. The efforts of these sectors to prevent these problems through new and rational solutions should not be overlooked. Particularly in recent years, new technologies are being applied to address these issues in ways that are both environmentally friendly and innovative. Today, producing is no longer sufficient; producing the highest quality at the most appropriate costs and in the fastest manner has become a fundamental condition of competition. In this new competitive environment where global transformation is taking place, these sectors will be able to maintain their strength and ensure sustainable competition through research and development and high-value-added innovative products. For high-value production, these sectors need to develop and continue their structural change process in Turkey (Anonymous, 2015).

Research and Development Activities in the Textile and Leather Sectors

When 2012 figures are examined, 53% of research and development expenditures in Turkey were carried out by the manufacturing industry. Within the manufacturing industry, the share of research and development expenditures was 2.89% in textiles, 0.49% in apparel, and 0.09% in leather products. Research and development activities in these sectors primarily focus on topics such as high-performance products manufactured with nanotechnology, functional design, economically environmentally-conscious approaches, and advanced products for different areas of use (Anonymous, 2015). Turkey's path to competing with developed countries lies through research and development. To become not only a consuming but also a producing society and to differentiate in this sense, investments based on research and development must be made and research and development activities must be determined as development strategies. Because the textile and leather sectors are from traditional industrial branches, they are classified by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in the low-technology sectors group. Since small-scale enterprises and firms that have not completed their institutional structure have not yet adopted a research and development culture, the research and development activities carried out in the sector remain at a low level compared to other sectors described as technology-intensive (Anonymous, 2015). New Technologies in the Textile and Leather Sectors In today's world where technological developments are occurring rapidly, more effective and more economical work that can meet customer requests and demands must be brought to the sector (Anonymous, 2013). Today's industries use new technologies to develop their products, and among these, plasma technology is preferred in different processes in different sectors. Particularly the automotive, aerospace, electronics, food and packaging industries are at the forefront of these sectors.

Plasma technology, one of the new technologies, has several advantages over wet processing, such as no need for water, the process taking place in the gas phase, minimal use of chemical substances, no industrial waste generation, the process being effective only on the material surface, and energy savings (Gökalp, 2011).

The reactive particles formed in the plasma process impart functional properties such as surface activation, cleaning, abrasion, grafting, and cross-linking to the material surface without damaging its basic properties. Through plasma application, textile and leather materials have been given hydrophobic, hydrophilic, high dye consumption, antibacterial, and flame-resistance properties (Karahan, 2007; Seventekin and Özdoğan, 2008; Koizhaiganova et al., 2017; Gaidau et al., 2017; Idris et al., 2013). However, most of the studies conducted remain limited to experimental level in the laboratory. Nevertheless, considering the flexible and dynamic structure of the textile and leather sectors, which have brought about very important changes in the past and have played a locomotive role for the Turkish economy with strategic importance, it is thought that they will quickly adapt to recent changes (Anonymous, 2013). Today, although plasma technology is not fully utilized in the production processes of these sectors, some studies conducted show that this technology can be easily integrated into the processes and could be an alternative in imparting functional properties with the new production techniques demanded by the sector. Therefore, increasing research and development studies on plasma applications in the textile and leather sectors and incorporating plasma technology into large-scale production would be beneficial for both the sector and Turkey's economy. In recent years, many studies have been carried out on ion implantation technology, which is as innovative a technology as plasma technology. In this system, energetic ions in a high vacuum are embedded through a beam into the interior of a solid or material. Thus, the physical and chemical properties near the surface of the solid are modified. Since ion implantation technology is performed in a higher energy environment compared to plasma treatment, many elements can be embedded into the solid surface. Additionally, because the device enables implantation on large-scale materials, applications for production purposes are made possible (Açikel et al., 2015; Aslan et al., 2015). Besides this, because the device provides the ability to be applied to large-scale materials and is more suitable for modified or functional product production and trade, it is expected to be incorporated into production in the future.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Both our textile and leather sectors require significant structural changes to achieve their objectives successfully in international competition. For this, the necessary know-how and technology must be acquired and applied in a timely and correct manner, worker quality must be improved, and efforts must be made to reach the objectives. To incorporate new technologies into production, more incentives should be given to research and development and brand creation should be attempted. To enable the labor-intensive working sector to use technology and machinery more extensively, incentives should also be provided for machinery investments aimed at production. In addition to these, the focus should be on high-value-added products. Products manufactured for military and technical purposes are leading in this regard. We must transition from the position of a contract manufacturing country to the position of a country that produces and markets its own brands, and we must identify and implement our resources, workforce, and technical infrastructure in the most efficient manner. Asst. Prof. Dr. \ Meruyert Kaygusuz - Pamukkale University Denizli Technical Vocational School of Higher Education Department of Textile, Apparel, Footwear and Leather Asst. Prof. Dr. \ Nuray Olcay Işık - Namık Kemal University Çorlu Vocational School of Higher Education Department of Textile, Apparel, Footwear and Leather

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